Davis District to survey residents on education

Davis School District leaders want to know how county residents feel about education issues in the district.

This month about 800 Davis residents will be getting calls from an independent research firm based in Riverton that is conducting a telephone survey regarding various educational issues in the county.

District leaders say they hope the $16,000 survey will give district leaders better insight into the opinions and views of their constituents.

"Within education, we talk a lot about making data-based decisions," said Davis School District Superintendent Bryan Bowles. "This survey is just another tool to find out what people are thinking, how well we are communicating our success and challenges and how and where we may need to improve."

The survey will take over 10 minutes, and those who take part in the survey will be asked to weigh in on the effectiveness of area schools, their top educational concerns, spring break preferences, rate efforts in informing people about issues and events, whether school and district Web sites are useful, whether school is academically challenging, preparing students for the workplace and higher learning, and levels of satisfaction.

"Sometimes we in education appear to have cotton in our ears and that we don't want to hear people's opinions," said Chris Williams, community relations director for Davis School District. "We really do want to hear from people and my view is if we can foster personal relationships between school leaders, teachers and parents the better education we can provide to our students."

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